South Africa’s state-owned utility Eskom will begin operating Unit 3 at the long-delayed Kusile coal-fired power station this week. The 4.8GW Kusile coal-fired power project Mpumalanga province is expected to achieve full capacity by 2023.
The construction of the Kusile power plant started in 2007 with all six generating units of the facility originally scheduled for commissioning by 2017. However, the project, along with the Medupi power plant project suffered delays due to cost overruns and design flaws. Originally estimated at $7billion, the project cost escalated to $10billion.
Eskom generates approximately 95% of the electricity used in South Africa and approximately 45% of the electricity used in Africa. It has however had to battle nationwide blackouts due to repeated faults at its ailing coal-fired power stations, severely limiting economic growth.
The Kusile power plant is located on a 1,355ha-site in the Nkangala district of Mpumalanga, South Africa
Eskom had repeated power cuts in February and March in order to perform maintenance on its facilities. This month it faced uncertainty on about 6,000 MW of its nominal capacity of more than 44,000 MW and expects electricity supply to remain volatile until maintenance is finalised by September 2021.
The 4.8GW coal-fired facility will be one of the world’s biggest coal-fired power stations and is expected to generate enough electricity for approximately three million South African households.